assassination

Etymology

It is a noun of action formed from English assassinate + -ation.^[2][3][4] The verb comes from Medieval Latin assassīnātus, the past participle of assassīnō (“to murder”),^[3][2] from assassīnus, the source of assassin.^[2][5] That word goes back through French and Italian to an Arabic nickname for the Nizari Ismaili sect of the Crusader period: the OED gives it as حَشِيشِيّ (ḥašīšī), the AHD as حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), both from حَشِيش (ḥašīš, “hashish”).^[2][5][3] The OED also compares Middle French assassinat (“assassination”), recorded in French from 1547.^[2] English had the earlier noun assassinment from the 1570s.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The murder of a person, especially a prominent public figure, in a planned attack, usually for political or ideological reasons: 1610, in the title of a translation.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is famous from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macbeth wishes that "th' assassination could trammel up the consequence".^[7] Johnson quoted that line in 1755, defining the word as the act of assassinating, murder by violence.^[7] By 1647 it was also used figuratively, for ruining or destroying someone or something,^[2] and the verb was used of reputations from the 1620s.^[3] In modern use the figurative sense applies chiefly to a person's reputation, as in character assassination.^[2][6][4]

Timeline

• 1570s – the earlier noun assassinment.^[3]
• c. 1600 – assassination according to Etymonline.^[3]
• 1610 – the planned murder of a prominent person.^[2][6]
• 1610s – the verb assassinate.^[3]
• 1647 – figurative, the destruction of someone or something, now especially of a reputation.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The deliberate murder of a prominent person, especially a political leader, often for political reasons: the assassination of the prime minister.
2. The ruin of someone's reputation by unfair attacks, as in character assassination.

Word family

• counterassassination
• character assassination

Related words

• assassin
• assassinate
• hashish

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.